5.04 - Birthmarks

For all the awesome of this episode, I was rather let down by the "reconciliation" I loved the reconciliation! :wub: I never had any doubt that Wilson was trying to get away from House because he couldn't bear the idea that he would lose House too. That it was love and not hate what was driving Wilson away. I loved that Wilson acknowledged that House was right - saying to him, without even knowing - something that House wanted to hear from his father and that he decided that he wants to be with House, more than he needs. I felt very sorry for John House. He was the one who lived in a lie for a big part of his life - whether he was aware or not about House's paternity. I have to wonder which one of them (Blythe or John) were really the main responsible for House's cynic POV about people, because dad might have been a bastard, but mom wasn't much better. I know there was a PotW, and the case was actually very interesting - if not so much because it gave us the DDX at the diner! But I really didn't care... The tale of H/W first met was great. Sweet, funny and slashy, oh, so very slashy... And also I don't think it solved any timeline issue, did it? I so loved the episode! It has flaws, sure, but nothing that really bothers me. It's one of those episodes that I can watch again and again and every time find new meanings. One last thing: which was the iconic moment? The bottle throwing? I can't think of anything else. Oh, and Chippers, I'm not DS :lol: I read the Dancing Queen ringtone in Shipper's fic and I was delighted with the idea, even more now that it turned out it was true. :wink:

Whether she was right or wrong, she wanted him to deliver the eulogy so he could face up to what his father meant to him. <snip> I think it was her version of tough love: Get her son to face up to the man his father was in front of her and all his friends who were honoring him so that he could see not only his own childhood relationship with him but also how his father fit into and was respected in his own world. This seems condescending to me. It's one thing for a parent to do something like that when their child is still a child, but as an adult, his choices about what to "face up to" and how and when to do it should be his own. And it's assuming not only that he hasn't already "faced" it (whether he emotes about it in public or not) but also that her version of reality is more valid than his. How can he NOT already know "how his father fit into and was respected in his own world"? In fact, his observation about the ranks of the people present tells us he knew exactly how his father fit into his world. To me, it seemed that it wasn't nearly about seeing who his father was as much as it was about validating her version of reality at the cost of his own. I think that's the one thing I want most from this series these days: for someone, anyone other than a POTW who won't hang around, to give House some validation, some acknowledgment that he has the right to feel what he feels and not what someone thinks he ought to feel, that his feelings, his pain, his reality are just as real and just as valid as anyone else's. As he says about this POTW, "At least she's got documentation". I just didn't see any indication that he was gaining any new insight from the funeral, just being forced to acknowledge what he already knew in front of a bunch of unsympathetic Marines. Maybe acknowledging it out loud was a breakthrough, but I think the value of that would have been neutralized by being told yet again that his feelings are wrong and don't matter.

And also I don't think it solved any timeline issue, did it? Sadly, I don't think it did. Why couldn't Wilson have started off with, "The year was 19..." that would have helped. One last thing: which was the iconic moment? The bottle throwing? I can't think of anything else. Yes it was the bottle throwing. And I'm glad it was kept in, I see it as a symbolic new beginning for them especially with Wilson going back to House because he wanted to as opposed to not being able to resist House's neediness. There were/are good things about their relationship and I'm glad to see Wilson acknowledging it. I knew he'd come around. I just tried to say that it's probably more fun having a rootcanal than being in mourning for two months. True, but I think a lot of it was Wilson also realizing that this is not the first time he's had fun with House. That he does have fun with House and he enjoys his company, something that he's lost sight of recently.

One last thing: which was the iconic moment? The bottle throwing? I can't think of anything else. Yes. There's an interview with David Foster and Doris Egan in the Media thread, and she said this was the iconic moment.

There's an interview with David Foster and Doris Egan in the Media thread Where??? :? I read the DE entry on her LJ about spoilers - she's really great! - but she didn't talk about the iconic moment...

Lully, it's this article. If anyone is interested, an LJ-user named pintsizeninja has posted her transcript of the House-Wilson scenes from this episode.

Thanks, NightOwl! There were very interesting points in that interview. I'm very glad that they kept the iconic moment, though I can't even imagine why would they cut it?

And it's assuming not only that he hasn't already "faced" it (whether he emotes about it in public or not) but also that her version of reality is more valid than his. How can he NOT already know "how his father fit into and was respected in his own world"? In fact, his observation about the ranks of the people present tells us he knew exactly how his father fit into his world. To me, it seemed that it wasn't nearly about seeing who his father was as much as it was about validating her version of reality at the cost of his own. I didn't think that what House said in his eulogy was necessarily his mother's view of reality or what she hoped he'd say. But then, I wasn't sure she really had one firm view of what she hoped he'd say. I think she just wanted him to acknowledge that he had a relationship with his father, for better and/or for worse. And that his father was more than just House's worst memories of him, though he was also that. I think House actually did change his choice of how to eulogise his father mid-track, when he acknowledged the traits they have in common. And he followed his own mind on what to include of the negative. So, I do think he got something out of speaking about his father to people who knew him as well. In real life, I wouldn't think pushing someone into a eulogy is a great idea. But I do think funerals bring things to the surface and allow for some re-evaluation of relationships, as one not only looks back in a way that is hard when you're in a relationship, but also see the way the deceased is remembered by others. And if you show up at the funeral, you inevitably take part in conversations and situations that bring things up. I understand why in a hour long drama, the writers decided to use the convention of the eulogy to crystallise this process for House. We don't have time for a more realistic portrayal of the process. It worked for me.

She was right to get him there and right to get him to give the eulogy: maybe she does know him better than Wilson. If he hadn't gone to the funeral, he wouldn't have been confronted with all these people who knew and respected his father and might have just kept his view from childhood of his father as someone who didn't understand or appreciate him I think there comes a time when you have to let your child make his own mistakes so that he is the one responsible for the consequences of his actions and has to clean up otherwise he's never going to learn or be able to truly grow up and 49 is way past that point, IMO. House is close to three times as old as Blythe was when she got married, it's time for him to make his own mistakes and deal with the consequences he made rather than having Mommy tell him what to do or smooth the rough spots for him. It's one of the things that bugs me about the way Cuddy and sometimes Wilson treat House, getting upset at him and then cleaning up his messes themselves. House seems trapped as a perpetual 8 year old since he rarely has deal with the consequences of his actions, to take any of the cost of the broken MRI machine out of his budget or face the Tritter finding out he forged Wilson's name on prescription pads or stealing drugs from a dead guy or even smaller issues like failing to properly supervise his fellows so he keeps right on doing the same things, being outrageous and expecting other people to take care of the problems. If House is protected from the consequences of his actions or prevented from doing what he thinks is right for him (in this case not delivering the eulogy) he's not going to learn not to do it again next time. Maybe he does want to deny his feelings about his father and maybe he shouldn't but that's his right and IMO Blythe shouldn't force him to confront them. It was "parental issues" night on TV yesterday, House and his daddy issues, and Gibbs and his on NCIS at 8, and Stabler and his mommy at 10. I didn't watch NCIS (going to catch it tonight) but I think L&O did a better job of conveying the complexities of the relationship than House did. Of course, having Ellen Burstyn didn't hurt. What I remember most is her saying that she made some choices she regrets but they were her choices and it is her responsibility to live with the consequences of those choices. That's a freedom those close to him aren't allowing House. While I hate that Shore has sidelined Chase and Cameron, he's right that when they do show up, they have an adult/adult relationship with House. I do like that and I wish the others on the show did. The one thing I've never understood about Blythe is why she didn't protect House from things like ice baths or no dinner if you were 2 minutes late. Now I have to wonder if allowing John to raise Greg as he saw fit (when he was stationed in a place where the family could be together) was because she felt guilty about the fact that he wasn't really Greg's dad. I got a David Copperfield vibe from this, that Blythe is too conventional and too subservient by the men in her life to stand up to her husband. In Daddy's Boy, she was also very much "hide the bad things under the carpet and everything will be fine". Well, House already knows the man who he thinks is his father so he may not need more details (as he loves to avoid stuff) But he also likes to know stuff, as he told Chase in Cursed. I was thinking that if he felt like he was a changeling all his life (pissing off people since he was 3) he might want to connect with his biological father to see where his traits come from and how he fits in. It's a common reason why adopted children go looking for their birth parents.

Re-watching...another gem is the part where House tosses the bag of licorice root to Foreman to keep his distance from him, in case House had been exposed to SARS when the girl coughed on him (and the reason he covers his mouth, and checks the elevator before getting in). HL is amazing (I know, preaching to the choir here).

I thought the reason Wilson gave for coming back was not very convincing. The roadtrip was the most fun he had had since Amber died. Well, that figures if the only things you have done in those few weeks is go to griefcounselling and read magazines about barnconversions. :roll: LOL ITA. The choices: grieving and lonely, or hounded and annoyed and who-knows-what-else by House? I'd go with the latter; lesser of two evils. :lol: I don't know, though. I never got the sense that Wilson was denying any love or bonds or feelings between them, just saying it wasn't a "friendship". It was simultaneously a lot more and a lot less than that, so I think he was entirely right. I'm just wondering what happened to the "if I've learned anything from Amber it's that I have to take care of myself" and all that. It's unrelated to the reason why Wilson was leaving given to us in this episode, and that's why I don't think the "reconciliation" actually reconciled anything. :lol: Hugh_lover, on the "mommy and abandonment issues"--I can see it fitting into his psychology in that way, and I'm sure, after seeing House nearly kill himself many times, he's afraid of losing him. I don't think--the way it came across to me in this instance--it's the reason Wilson was leaving, though. And that's because I had interpreted everything Wilson said in DCE as, "I'm sick of enabling you and being your doormat, cleaning up your messes, etc., and I need to take care of myself. This doesn't seem like a 'friendship' anymore, and as it stands now I feel that leaving is best." ("...Instead of sticking around waiting and hoping for you to fulfill promises you never intended to keep and for an apology to mean you regret whatever you did and will stop doing it and not just that you know you should say it and it'll 'work on me'." Ha...) And I was really happy about that, 'cause I've been wanting him to put his foot down since Tritter. I loved the reconciliation! :wub: I never had any doubt that Wilson was trying to get away from House because he couldn't bear the idea that he would lose House too. That it was love and not hate what was driving Wilson away. I loved that Wilson acknowledged that House was right - saying to him, without even knowing - something that House wanted to hear from his father and that he decided that he wants to be with House, more than he needs. But that's exactly what I don't like. :lol: I didn't think it was love or hate for House that was driving him away, but a long-forgotten instinct for self-preservation. I was excited about that. More than anything, actually, I was excited at the prospect of seeing House realize and show that he cares and wants and not just needs. :P I'm just hoping--though no longer expecting; I'm taking after HL and RSL and expecting the worst, lol--the reason Wilson gave for leaving will be addressed somehow. I didn't even think that by this episode the "why" was still up in the air. I thought Wilson explained it eloquently in DCE, and all we needed was the "what next?"

House is close to three times as old as Blythe was when she got married, it's time for him to make his own mistakes and deal with the consequences he made rather than having Mommy tell him what to do or smooth the rough spots for him. I don't think too many families function this way. You are always your parents' child and old dynamics rear their heads when families get together. It's why so much drama is centered on family occasions. Family members very often get into each other's business and certainly a funeral would bring issues to the surface if one person is using the occasion to make a statement. It's one of the things that bugs me about the way Cuddy and sometimes Wilson treat House, getting upset at him and then cleaning up his messes themselves. House seems trapped as a perpetual 8 year old since he rarely has deal with the consequences of his actions, to take any of the cost of the broken MRI machine out of his budget or face the Tritter finding out he forged Wilson's name on prescription pads or stealing drugs from a dead guy or even smaller issues like failing to properly supervise his fellows so he keeps right on doing the same things, being outrageous and expecting other people to take care of the problems. I think House has taken more responsibility than you suggest--Tritter did find out about the forgery and that didn't go anywhere because Tritter was using his position to get personal revenge for a situation he helped create. Cuddy may have lied for him, but the judge knew she did and threw the case out anyway. House was judged and not found wanting. Cameron has broken the MRI as often as House and she got away with it too--something about putting her patient first? And whether House fails to properly supervise his fellows is a matter of opinion. I think he's been shown to be a tough but nevertheless good teacher and his former fellows not only learned a lot but are fond of him. He does get away with a lot, but he also accomplishes a lot. In this episode, I thought it was very fitting that Wilson looked to his own behaviour and realised he hadn't assessed the relationship accurately when he walked away from House. House has been opening up honestly to Wilson for three episodes now, it was Wilson's turn to open up. I didn't even think that by this episode the "why" was still up in the air. I thought Wilson explained it eloquently in DCE, and all we needed was the "what next?" For me, the "why" was very much up in the air, as I didn't think the friendship was at all summed up by House spreading nothing but misery, nor that only House has transgressed boundaries. I'm delighted Wilson remembered why he was friends with House and that their relationship was not one-sided or based solely on Wilson enabling. I'm so glad Wilson is reconciling based on wanting to be friends with House, not on demanding House change who he is. I'm sure they will still have issues and disagreements, but fundamentally, I think they like each other and they make each other laugh and they keep each other honest. I think all that came through in this ep.

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